Festival Hopping - Pt. II

Wajima Citizen's Festival - June 7th

Wajima is another town on the other side of the peninsula from mine, and I went to see their annual "Citizen's Festival." The highlight of the festival is their firework show which is known as the biggest in the Noto, and it was indeed the best fireworks I have seen in my life. Japanese firework shows last much longer, have bigger fireworks, and even create gorgeous shapes. Here are a few examples that in no way do it justice. 

アジサイ祭り - June 28th

Ajisai Matsuri was a small festival held at one of the "flower temples" of Noto. It is famous because of the Ajisai flower bushes that grow all around the temple, and they have a festival every year while they are in full bloom. My taiko (drum) team actually performed during this festival. For the full story see: http://oliviahogan.blogspot.jp/2014/07/this-past-saturday-evening-my-taiko.html.

あばれ祭り - July 4th

Abare Matsuri- the festival of violence. This one is pretty unforgettable. (Well, they all are.  But this one, really, blows your mind to see.) http://oliviahogan.blogspot.jp/2014/07/let-fire-and-violence-begin.html

3 for 3 - July 19th-21st

July 21st is Marine Day- a national holiday in Japan. What better way to celebrate a three day weekend than by going to three different festivals right?

Actually there were so many festivals that weekend- five that I know of! But I went to three that I was personally invited to. 

On Saturday night I attended the Mawaki Kiriko festival, which had the prettiest kiriko I have seen so far. The Kiriko were colorfully decorated with paper streamers, flowers and lamps. Also the lantern part of each of the 8 kirikos had an ink image of a traditional Japanese lady. I asked why they all had a picture of a lady on them, and upon posing that query to the priest he explained to me that it is a long-standing tradition to have a drawing of a beautiful lady because that way the men heaving the kiriko up and down the streets will work harder! In fact, upon being spotted by one of the older patrons of the festival, I was handed a lamp and instructed to dance and cheer in front of one of the kirikos to encourage the boys carrying it. Then they decided to dress me in a hapi coat and have me join one of the kiriko teams, so I helped heave the heavy wooden kiriko until 2 am when they finished for the night.

On Sunday I drove up to the neighboring town of Suzu for Iida's Yama Matsuri. Yama are basically like wagons that the townspeople pull with huge ropes from the front, while a team of experienced men push from the back and operate the "brakes." They use a huge wooden pole which they slide under the wheels when it needs to stop or pivot to make a turn. This job is only trusted to the strongest and most confident men since a moment of in-attention could result in injury. The yama for this festival were much different than the yama I have seen before in other town's festivals. Iida's yama were square shaped and looked more like portable shrines than a wagon (like the other yamas I have seen). They were mostly decorated in red and gold and had hundreds of lamps swinging from the ridges on all sides. Of course there were scads of children riding the whole time as well.

Monday night I finished my three-day weekend with one last kiriko festival in Yanagida. I was invited by one of the teachers I work with and upon entering her family's house I was greeted by at least ten of my elementary kids from Yanagida. I took a seat at a table with all of their mothers, who were quite shy at first but when they realized I speak Japanese they became warm and chatty and I had a great evening chatting and laughing with my student's mothers.